Pink, Blue, Yellow, White and...

If you look at the history of the obesity epidemic in the United States you can trace the almost the entire thing back to one plant; corn.

It was the introduction of high fructose corn syrup as a sweetener that helped spur the massive increase in obesity in this country. It seems our bodies metabolize the syrup in a different manner than we metabolize sugar. As a result, the more we replace sugar with high fructose corn syrup the more chance we have of getting fat.

Today, however, in an announcement that is sure to shake up the processed food world, Cargill and Coca-Cola announced they were working together to begin sweetening Coca-Cola products with a new sweetener. The new sweetener is called "rebina" and is a derivative of the stevia plant. It is reportedly 100 times more sweet than sugar. Cargill is also working on a new table top version of the rebina to compete with Equal, Nutrasweet, Splenda and natural sugar. I wonder what color Cargill will choose.

I haven't heard if anyone knows the impact of rebina on our bodies. According to Coke, Stevia isn't approved in the U.S. for use in food and beverages, but is approved in 12 other countries, including Brazil, Japan and China. Cargill is currently conducting clinical trials in an effort to get FDA approval to use the plant here.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest says that more tests need to be done before Stevia is approved by FDA. While there is no evidence that the plant causes ill effects in humans, CSPI says there are warning signs that need to be investigated.

Google Maps and directions from Denver to London

Those Googleheads are pretty funny. Check out step number 23 in the itenerary below.

Drive:
5,705 mi (about 30 days 11 hours)

1.
Head west on W Colfax Ave/I-70-BL toward Delaware St 0.9 mi
3 mins

2.
Merge onto I-25 N via the ramp to Fort Collins 5.9 mi
7 mins

3.
Take the I-76 W/I-76 E exit toward Grand Jct/Fort Morgan/70th Ave 0.1 mi

4.
Take exit 216A to merge onto I-76 E toward Ft Morgan
Entering Nebraska 182 mi
2 hours 27 mins

5.
Merge onto I-80 E
Entering Iowa 473 mi
6 hours 34 mins

6.
Take exit 123B to merge onto I-35 N/I-80 E toward Chicago/Minneapolis
Continue to follow I-80 E 166 mi
2 hours 28 mins

7.
Take exit 290 for I-280 E/US-6 E toward Rock Island/Moline 0.7 mi

8.
Merge onto I-280 E
Entering Illinois 26.7 mi
26 mins

9.
Continue on I-80 E
Partial toll road
Entering Indiana 168 mi
2 hours 44 mins

10.
Take exit 16 to merge onto I-80 E/I-90 E
Partial toll road
Entering Ohio 278 mi
4 hours 14 mins

11.
Take exit 142 to merge onto I-90 E toward OH-2 E
Partial toll road 28.3 mi
29 mins

12.
Take exit 170B for I-90 E/I-71 S/OH-176 S toward Cleveland/Columbus 0.7 mi
1 min

13.
Merge onto I-90 E 17.2 mi
19 mins

14.
Take the exit onto I-90 E toward Erie PA
Partial toll road
Passing through Pennsylvania
Entering New York 448 mi
7 hours 0 mins

15.
Continue on I-87 S/New York State Thruway S (signs for New York Thruway S/I-87 S/New York/Boston/Mass Pike)
Toll road 14.6 mi
14 mins

16.
Take exit 21A toward I-90 E/Mass Turnpike/Boston
Toll road 0.9 mi
1 min

17.
Merge onto New York State Thruway E
Toll road
Entering Massachusetts 24.1 mi
22 mins

18.
Continue on I-90 E/Massachusetts Turnpike/Mass Pike
Partial toll road 134 mi
2 hours 9 mins

19.
Take exit 24 A-B-C on the left toward I-93 N/Concord NH/S Station/I-93 S/Quincy 0.4 mi
1 min

20.
Merge onto Atlantic Ave 0.8 mi
3 mins

21.
Turn right at Central St 0.1 mi

22.
Turn right at Long Wharf 0.1 mi

23.
Swim across the Atlantic Ocean
Entering France 3,462 mi
29 days 0 hours

24.
Slight right at E05 0.5 mi
2 mins

25.
At the traffic circle, take the 2nd exit onto E05/Pont Vauban 0.1 mi

26.
Turn right at E05/Quai Colbert
Continue to follow E05 5.7 mi
10 mins

27.
Take the exit onto A29/E44 toward Amiens
Partial toll road 27.8 mi
23 mins

28.
Take the exit toward Dieppe/Amiens/Calais/A151/Rouen
Toll road 1.1 mi
1 min

29.
Merge onto A29
Toll road 22.6 mi
19 mins

30.
Take the exit onto A28
Partial toll road 45.6 mi
37 mins

31.
Take the exit onto A16 toward Boulogne/Calais
Partial toll road 63.7 mi
54 mins

32.
Take exit 42 0.6 mi
1 min

33.
Slight right 1.0 mi
2 mins

34.
Turn right 0.4 mi
1 min

35.
Turn right 0.2 mi
4 mins

36.
Take the Dover Folkestone - Calais Frethun train to Folkstone
Entering United Kingdom (England) 34.2 mi
1 hour 2 mins

37.
Continue straight 0.3 mi
2 mins

38.
Slight right toward M20 1.6 mi
4 mins

39.
Merge onto M20 via the ramp to London/Ashford 47.2 mi
45 mins

40.
Continue on A20 (signs for London (SE)/Lewisham) 9.7 mi
15 mins

41.
At Clifton's Roundabout, take the 2nd exit onto A20/Sidcup Rd
Continue to follow A20 2.2 mi
6 mins

42.
At the traffic circle, take the 2nd exit onto A20/Loampit Vale
Continue to follow A20 1.3 mi
4 mins

43.
Continue on A2/Lewisham Way
Continue to follow A2 0.7 mi
2 mins

44.
Slight right at A2/Kender St 72 ft

45.
Turn right to stay on A2/Kender St
Continue to follow Kender St 0.3 mi
1 min

46.
Turn left at A2/New Cross Rd
Continue to follow A2 1.9 mi
5 mins

47.
At Brick Layers Arms, take the 1st exit onto A201/New Kent Rd 0.6 mi
2 mins

48.
At the traffic circle, take the 2nd exit onto A302/St George's Rd 0.4 mi
1 min

49.
Turn left at A3203/Lambeth Rd 0.6 mi
3 mins

50.
At the traffic circle, take the 2nd exit and stay on A3203/Lambeth Rd
Continue to follow A3203 0.2 mi
1 min

51.
At Horseferry Rd, take the 3rd exit onto A3212/Millbank
Continue to follow A3212 0.4 mi
1 min

Memorial Day in the Mountains

Our friend Molly has a condo in Summit County, Colorado. She is very kind to us and called us on Thursday wondering if we would like to use her condo for the weekend. It is a great place that sits about 1800 feet above the town of Silverthorne.

We said yes and as a result I'm sitting in an easy chair in the Rocky Mountains as I write this post. It is a wonderful and relaxing place to be.

Life is good.

Family Values and Iran

One of my concerns when we chose our house in the Denver suburbs was that we'd be moving into an all white neighborhood and that my kids only exposure to people of color would be when we hired someone to do work on our house, mow our lawn or clean our house. That's the way it was in Texas.

Thankfully that hasn't been the case in Colorado.

Our neighborhood is remarkably diverse. One family includes both a mom and dad who grew up in Iran, met here in the United States, got married and started a family. They now have a high school age daughter and an elementary school age son. Every couple of years they try to go back to Iran for an extended trip to visit the (now) grandparents and other relatives.

Today was the day one of those trips began. Mom, daughter and son boarded a plane at noon mountain time to fly to Frankfurt and then on to Tehran. They plan on being gone for nine weeks. Their Dad had to stay home to work.

I'm not entirely sure how they are feeling about the trip but I am nervous for them.

Have you heard what the Iranian government is up to? They are holding some Iranian-Americans against their will. The Associated Press reported this way.

An Iranian-American academic who works at a Washington-based institute is being held in a notorious prison after being prohibited from leaving Iran for more than four months, the institute and her husband said Wednesday.
Haleh Esfandiari, the director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, was sent Tuesday to Evin prison after she arrived at Iran's Intelligence Ministry for questioning, the center said.

The article went on to say,

Other Iranian-Americans have also been prohibited from leaving Iran in recent months including journalist Parnaz Azima, who works for the U.S.-funded Radio Farda. Another American, former FBI agent Robert Levinson, disappeared in March after going to Iran's resort island of Kish, and his whereabouts are unknown. Tehran says it's continuing to investigate.

More details were provided about what has happened to Haleh Esfandiari,

The Wilson Center said three masked men holding knives threatened to kill Esfandiari, who was in Tehran visiting her 93-year-old mother, on Dec. 30 as she was on her way to the airport. They took her baggage, including her U.S. and Iranian passports, the center said. For several weeks, she was interrogated by authorities for up to eight hours a day, according to the center. Most of the questioning focused on the activities of the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center. "Although Dr. Esfandiari went home every evening, the some 50 hours of questioning were unpleasant — to put it mildly — and not free from intimidation and threat," the center said.

Now it is very easy for me to sit here in Colorado and wonder if my neighbors should have simply stayed home. But they are going to see family and there really isn't much in the world that would keep me from wanting to see my family. What would you do? Your parents are getting older, so visits seem to be more valuable, you live 7,000 miles apart so visits don't happen all that often and you want your children to know and understand something of their heritage, you want them to understand something of the place where you grew up. What would you do?

I'd be nervous but I'd probably go.

And so, for the next nine weeks, I'll say a prayer for the safety of my neighbors, a prayer for those Americans already being held and a prayer for a more sane relationship between the United States and Iran.

Memorial Day 2007

One of my grandfathers was captured by the Germans in World War II. He wrote this poem about his experience.

I’m an Ex-POW/MIA

And in a land so very far away,
And tho’ by no fault of our own,
We were surrendered … then left alone.

The enemy had surrounded us with their guns.
They picked us off then, one by one.
After a time—many, many dead.
We surrendered. Then wondered why in hell we did.

After many months of agony and pain.
We were told we might get home again.
And oh-the happiness that brought me!
(Hope you’ll never have to experience it to see.)

And now we’re home and well—and, yet-
They say there are some over there yet.
Until they’re home then—yes, everyone;
Then our work as Ex-POWs and MIAs is never done.

In 2003, my wife and I visited the field in Normandy where grandpa was captured.



A small monument marks the field.



After he was captured he was marched out this gate.



His first night in captivity was spent in a building at this farm. Prior to the war it was a quiet family farm and today it is a quiet family farm. As we looked at the first two stops on my grandfathers forced journey to a prison camp in Germany it felt strange to me to see how peaceful these places are today. It was shocking to realize just how much life really does go on. Places that are full of fear and sadness for some are places of great joy for others.





His second night was spent in a monastery.



He was shipped via train to Germany. He and his fellow POWs were crammed into boxcars and the doors were shut and locked. Soldiers died in the boxcars. There was very little room to move and the air quickly grew stale and very hot. The only way to get a breath of fresh air was to stick your nose through cracks in the floor boards. Unfortunately there were also no bathrooms so sticking your nose through the cracks meant pressing your face up against some nasty boards. But the fresh air was worth it so the soldiers took turns breathing the outdoor air.

What's remarkable is that these men in the boxcar were ordinary guys pushed into extraordinary circumstances. I can't imagine how they managed other than to say simply that they were survivors.

The men and women we have in our military today are ordinary people that have been sent into extraordinary circumstances. I encourage you to take a moment this weekend to think about what we have asked them to do. I encourage you to think about the sacrifices we've asked them to make and the sacrifices we've asked their loved ones to make.

Movies in the middle of May

I watched two interesting movies over the weekend.

Bobby is the fictionalized story of people who happened to be in the Ambassador Hotel the night RFK was assassinated. The movie looks at the events in each persons life on the day of the California primary in 1968. I was a bit wary about this movie because I hated Forest Gump and this seemed to be the same genre. But Bobby seemed to stay more true to history than Gump ever did. I didn't have to suspend belief to buy into what was happening on the screen.

From a political perspective, I was struck by what a liberal Kennedy was. Imagine what may have happened if such a liberal had been elected President in 1968. In all likelihood Jimmy Carter never would have been President and I wonder if Reagan would have ever made the move east.

I was also intrigued by the strong sense of place felt in the movie. The Ambassador Hotel, which was imploded a couple of years ago, played as much of a starring role as Bobby Kennedy did. The director and producers did a fantastic job of setting up this luxury hotel as a microcosm for America. There were the famous, the wealthy, the middle class managers and the middle class working stiffs, the retired, the students, the addicts, the dreamers, the radicals, the blacks, the browns, the whites and the working poor. Each segment of society was portrayed by one or two actors on screen and the roles were all tied together by the grand Ambassador Hotel.

As it is in the real world, our lives are bound to others by our connection with where we are and where we have been.

The title Bobby is a bit misleading, actually, for while his candidacy and his ideals play a central role in the telling of the story, the movie is really a look at America and the American dream. The movie is relentlessly optimistic. Even as the movie spills blood and tragedy as Kennedy is assassinated it also shows individuals uniting to care for each other.

It was a nice movie.

The other movie I watched was Stranger than Fiction. As I was watching the movie I kept thinking, "I wish this were a better movie because I really like it." Now, 24 hours later, I still really like it and can't get it out of my head. I think the movie was acted beautifully. I really enjoyed the individual performances although I didn't think the characters blended together all that well. I also thought the movie plodded a bit. At the same time, however, I really liked it. Have I said that before? I wish I could say more good things about it.

Bring the troops home

I'm one of the few Democrats I know who thought invading Iraq and getting rid of Saddam was the right course of action to take. I didn't come to that conclusion because I agreed with the President. Instead, I've come to believe that America must lead the world in eliminating genocidal dictators. Our ouster of Saddam was the right thing to do – it just happened 15 years too late.

Iraq was and is a killing field. Estimates are that Saddam executed more than 300,000 Iraqis during his reign. We let that happen. Presidents from Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton lacked the moral fortitude to stand up to this murderer. It was more convenient for Americans to ignore what was happening on the other side of the globe than do what needed to be done and commit our military to getting rid of Saddam.

Unfortunately, the only President willing to take on Saddam is George W. Bush. While Bush should get a small amount of credit for getting rid of Saddam the fact is that Bush did it for the wrong reasons. And his management of the war effort has been absolutely incompetent.

America suffers today because the Republican leadership in Washington is more interested in the game of politics, gaining and keeping power, than in the art of leadership. George Bush, Tom DeLay, Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich and Denny Hastert don't have a clue how to govern.

The leadership of the Republican Party consistently prioritizes partisan politics over public policy. As a result, our conduct of the war in Iraq has been a disaster. Tom Friedman has an excellent column on this subject in today's New York Times. Friedman writes,

One benchmark the Bush team has been urging the Iraqi government to meet is to rescind its broad “de-Baathification” program — the wholesale purging of Baathists after the fall of Saddam — which has alienated many Sunnis and hampered national reconciliation.

But while the Bush team has been lecturing the Iraqi Shiites to limit de-Baathification in Baghdad, it was carrying out its own de-Democratization in the Justice Department in Washington. We would feel that we had failed in Iraq if we read that Sunnis were being purged from Iraq’s Ministry of Justice by Shiite hard-liners loyal to Moktada al-Sadr — but the moral equivalent of that is exactly what the Bush administration was doing here. What kind of example does that set for Iraqis?

And this wasn’t only a Washington problem. Read Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s outstanding “Imperial Life in the Emerald City,” which details the extent to which Americans recruited to work for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad were chosen, at times, for their loyalty toward Republicanism rather than expertise on Islamism. “Two C.P.A. staffers said that they were asked if they supported Roe v. Wade and if they had voted for George W. Bush,” he wrote.

But this degree of partisanship — loyalty over competence — was destructive in a much bigger way. It also deprived the Bush team of the support it needed when things in Iraq didn’t turn out to be as easy as it expected.

Only a united America could have the patience and fortitude to heal a divided Iraq — and we simply don’t have that today. Why? Because George Bush and Dick Cheney asked everyone to check their politics at the door when it came to Iraq, because victory there was so important — everyone but themselves. They argued that the war in Iraq was the central front of the central struggle of our age — an unusual war, a war against terrorism and the pathologies that produce it — but then they indulged in the most rancid politics as usual at home.

They actually thought they could unite Iraq, while dividing America.

As much as I would like our efforts in Iraq to succeed and as much as I would like to believe that we could leave Iraq united, free from terror and on the road to democracy, that just isn't going to happen. Why? Because George Bush and his advisors are incompetent. No matter what we do in Iraq, no matter how hard our troops fight and work to stabilize that country, we will lose because George Bush is President of the United States. It is time to end America's role in this disaster and bring the troops home. The Iraqi people ought to start praying for mercy. Things are going to get much worse for them. George Bush ought to start praying for forgiveness. He's responsible for the mess.

American Idol

I had never watched more than about five minutes of American Idol until I saw an entire show two weeks ago. My impression of the show was that it was a bunch of people with decent voices who over-sang every pop song in the world. I really hated what I saw in those snippets.

But I have to admit that I watched the show again tonight. While there was some over-singing going on I thought the three finalists all did nice jobs with their performances. The final show, however, ought to be a contest between the two women.

Now the big question is, will I watch the final show?

I have no idea.

Brain Power -- Eat your carbs

I'm reading the book, "The Omnivore's Dilemma." It is a fascinating look at how food is produced and consumed in the United States. This little nugget of information popped out at me last night.

"The adult human brain accounts for 2 percent of our body weight but consumes 18 percent of our energy, all of which must come from a carbohydrate."

What's interesting is that the author, Michael Pollan, also says that brain size and gut size are inversely linked in animals. The bigger the brain, the smaller the gut and the bigger the gut the smaller the brain. Animals with large guts and small brains tend to usually only eat one or two items. Animals (like humans and rats) with big brains and small guts tend to eat a wide variety of items.

Pollan says that zoologists theorize that the brain of koala bears has actually shrunk over time. It seems that koala bears' brains don't even come close to filling up the space in their skulls. He says that this shrinkage has happened as koala bears have gone from a diet that included a number of different plants to a diet made up entirely of eucalyptus leaves.

Here's to eating a wide variety of carbs!

Send the Queen Home

I've read one article about the Queen of England's visit to the United States. I read it because I was interested in how the White House pulls off a big fancy dinner. I really have very little interest in the British royals. I find the entire idea of a monarchy to be absurd.

The article I read was in the NY Times on Saturday. In it, the reporter shared some dos and don'ts as to how people are to behave when hanging out with British Royalty.

Aides to Mrs. Bush shared a few dos and don’ts. The queen shall be addressed as “Your Majesty.” The prince is “Your Royal Highness.”

For women, curtsying is acceptable, but not required. One does not shake the queen’s hand unless the queen offers hers first.

And after Her Majesty finishes her meal, everyone’s meal is finished. (Not to worry, a senior official said of Mr. Bush: “He’s a really fast eater.”)

Will someone please tell the White House we won the Revolutionary War? We aren't royal subjects any more. We don't need to cow-tow to some pompous, old, over-paid, ribbon cutter. We certainly don't need to rush through our meal just so we can finish before the Queen and avoid her having to send us to bed without our dessert.

I'd feel a bit differently if the dinner were in London. But this dinner was in our house. I think it is time for England's Queen to respect our rules.

Do you rush by the world?

My friend, Anne, over at Black & White & Read has an excellent post regarding our ability to rush by the world.

Anne writes,

A few weeks ago, violin virtuoso Joshua Bell was asked by the Washington Post to take time out of his concert schedule and help them with a social experiment. He took his $3.5 million Stradavarius violin to a nearby Washington subway station. Dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, looking like a typical street musician, he began to play.

It was a rare moment of beauty -- one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written, on one of the most valuable violins ever made.

Guess what happened? The results on Anne's blog.